Equal protection

This election explainer was written by Amy Howe. It is part of SCOTUSblog’s 2020 Election Litigation Tracker, a joint project with Election Law at Ohio State.

The Constitution guarantees “the equal protection of the laws.” Originally enacted to outlaw state-sanctioned discrimination against Black people in the years following the Civil War, the equal protection clause has also been interpreted to prohibit other kinds of racial discrimination by the government. And more broadly, it bars the government in some circumstances from treating one group less favorably than another. The equal protection clause has played a central role in election-related litigation – for example, in the 2008 challenge to an Indiana law requiring voters to present a government-issued photo ID before casting a ballot and in Bush v. Gore, the 2000 Supreme Court decision reversing the Florida Supreme Court’s ruling requiring a recount.